Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park , Pennsylvania , USA and.
Crit Rev Biotechnol. 2015 Mar;35(1):1-14. doi: 10.3109/07388551.2013.793170. Epub 2013 Aug 6.
Biofilms in the environment can both cause detrimental and beneficial effects. However, their use in bioreactors provides many advantages including lesser tendencies to develop membrane fouling and lower required capital costs, their higher biomass density and operation stability, contribution to resistance of microorganisms, etc. Biofilm formation occurs naturally by the attachment of microbial cells to the support without use of any chemicals agent in biofilm reactors. Biofilm reactors have been studied and commercially used for waste water treatment and bench and pilot-scale production of value-added products in the past decades. It is important to understand the fundamentals of biofilm formation, physical and chemical properties of a biofilm matrix to run the biofilm reactor at optimum conditions. This review includes the principles of biofilm formation; properties of a biofilm matrix and their roles in the biofilm formation; factors that improve the biofilm formation, such as support materials; advantages and disadvantages of biofilm reactors; and industrial applications of biofilm reactors.
生物膜在环境中既可能产生有害影响，也可能产生有益影响。然而，它们在生物反应器中的应用具有许多优势，包括降低膜污染的趋势和较低的资本成本、更高的生物量密度和操作稳定性、对微生物抗性的贡献等。生物膜的形成是通过微生物细胞在没有使用任何化学药剂的情况下自然附着在载体上而发生的。在过去几十年中，生物膜反应器已经被研究并商业化用于处理废水和生产附加值产品的中试和生产规模。了解生物膜形成的基本原理、生物膜基质的物理和化学性质对于在最佳条件下运行生物膜反应器非常重要。本文综述了生物膜形成的原理；生物膜基质的性质及其在生物膜形成中的作用；提高生物膜形成的因素，如载体材料；生物膜反应器的优缺点；以及生物膜反应器的工业应用。
